Themes - electronicportfolios.comelectronicportfolios.com/portfolios/IRAbreakoutReflection.pdf · Some concerns… •Assessment for Learning ... Constructivist Approach to Project-Based

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Digital Storytelling in

Electronic Portfolios:Using Reflection on Experience

to Improve Learning for

K-12 students and Teacher

Professional Development

Dr. Helen BarrettUniversity of Alaska Anchorage

The REFLECT Initiative

Based on my online articles

• Electronic Portfolios as Digital Storiesof Deep Learning

– Emerging Digital Tools to Support Reflection inLearner-Centered Portfolios

• White Paper for TaskStream

• http://electronicportfolios.org/

– Under Online Publications

– Slides under Recent Conference Presentations

Themes

• Portfolios

• Assessment for Learning

• Reflection

• Storytelling

• Digital Storytelling

• Examples

A tale of two paper portfolios

• High School

graduates in

Washington

state (and

Utah, too!)

• High school

freshman in

NY(Jim Mahoney,

Power and Portfolios

published by

Heinemann)

What’s the difference between

those two stories?

•What are the variables

that produce these

extremes in attitudes

toward ownership of

portfolios?

What is a Portfolio in

Education?

A portfolio is a purposeful

collection of student work that

exhibits the student's efforts,

progress and achievements in

one or more areas [over time].

(Northwest Evaluation Association, 1990)

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What is a Portfolio in Education?

(2)

The collection must include:

• student participation inselecting contents

• the criteria for selection

• the criteria for judging merit

• evidence of student self-reflection(Northwest Evaluation Association, 1990)

Purpose & Goals for the portfolio

(Determine Content)

•Multiple purposes:

–Learning/Process

–Assessment

–Marketing/Showcase

Learning Portfolios

• “know thyself” = a lifetime of investigation

• self-knowledge as outcome of learning

Learning

Portfolio

Reflection

CollaborationDocumentation

The Learning Portfolio

(Zubizaretta, 2004,

p.20)

Learning Portfolios

• Support reflection which is central to learning

– “Folio Thinking”

• Reflection:

– The Heart and Soul of the Portfolio• An electronic portfolio without reflection is just a

– Digital scrapbook

– Fancy electronic resume

– Multimedia Presentation

– Personal web site

Showcase Portfolios

• Marketing

• Employment

• Tell your story

• A primary motivator for many

portfolio developers

Assessment Portfolios

• A major movement inTeacher Education in U.S.

• A major new commercialmarket

• A primary motivator fororganizations

More later!More later!

3

Think about the differences

between:

•Learning Portfolio and

Portfolio Learning

•Assessment Portfolio and

Portfolio Assessment• One is more Product, the other is

more Process

A few thoughts about

Assessment -- What Type?

•Assessment OFLearning? or

•Assessment FORLearning?

www.qca.org.uk

ages3-14

Principles of

Assessment FOR Learning

• Definition:Assessment for Learning is theprocess of seeking and interpretingevidence for use by learners andtheir teachers to decide where thelearners are in their learning, wherethey need to go and how best to getthere.

Overlap of Assessment

Types*

Portfolios thatsupport

AssessmentFOR

Learning

Portfolios thatsupport

AssessmentOF

Learning

Institution-centered Learner-centered

A Resource on

K-12 Portfolios• By Evangeline Harris

Stefanakis

• Published by

Heinemann

• Includes a CD-ROM

with examples of

student portfolios

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Assessment for Learning

Continuum - Enhanced

Stefanakis,Evangeline(2002) Multip leIntelligences andPortfolios.Portsmouth:Heinemann, p .136

Learning Accountability

Self Assessment

Informal Feedback

Rubrics

Portfolios

Performance Based

Standardized Tests

Reflection *

Observation *

What is Reflection?

• Major theoretical roots:

– Dewey

– Habermas

– Kolb

– Schön

• Dewey: “We do not learn fromexperience…we learn fromreflecting on experience.”

Resource on Biology of

Learning

• Enriching thePractice ofTeaching byExploring theBiology of Learning

• James E. Zull

• Stylus Publishing Co.

The Learning CycleDavid Kolb from Dewey, Piaget, Lewin

• Deep Learning (learning for real

comprehension) comes from a sequence of

– Experience

– Reflection

– Abstraction

– Active testing

• Zull: the learning cycle arises

naturally from the structure

of the brain (p.19)

The Learning CycleDavid Kolb from Dewey, Piaget, Lewin, adapted by Zull

Experiential Learning ModelLewin/Kolb with adaptations by Moon and Zull

Concreteexperience

Observations andreflections

Formation of abstractconcepts and generalizations

Testing implicationsof concepts in newsituations

(Kolb, 1984, p.21)

Try out what youhave learned

Learn from the experience

Reflect on the experience

Have an experience

Outside

Inside

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Reflection and EmotionJames Zull

• Hard to make meaning of experience

unless it engages our emotions. (p.166)

• Reflection: a search for connections

• Sleep researchers: dreams help us make

connections…We discover what is

important to us, because we dream about

what matters most. (p.168)

• For comprehension we need time. (p.168)

Reflection and EmotionJames Zull

• decrease our emphasis on speed and information

• increase the possibilities for reflection

• give our students the kind of experience that would

produce dreams-- experiences that engage their

emotions. (p.168)

• “…our experiences must matter in our lives if we

are to learn from them.” (p.168)

• “…it suggests how seriously we have to

take emotion if we want to foster deep learning.” (p.

169)

My own story

•The issue of time andlearning - reaching anothertransition and decisionpoint in a long career,reflecting on themilestones inmy life

•Play "choices"

Moon on Reflection

• One of the defining characteristics ofsurface learning is that it does notinvolve reflection (p.123)

• Conditions for Reflection:

– Time and space

– Good facilitator

– Curricular or institutional environment

– Emotionally supportive environment

Moon’s Qualities of Tasks that

Encourage Reflection

• Ill-structured, ‘messy’ or real-life situations

• Asking the ‘right’ kinds of questions – no clear-

cut answers

• Setting challenges can promote reflection

• Tasks that challenge learners to integrate new

learning into previous learning

• Tasks that demand the ordering of thoughts

• Tasks that require evaluation

pp.175-6

Storytelling

as a Theory of Learning

• Two educators from

New Zealand -

staff developer and

health educator

• Relates storytelling to

literature on learning

and reflection

• Provides stages of

storytelling related to

reflection

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Maxine Alterio, Helen Barrett, Janice McDrury

December 9, 2004 - Dunedin, New Zealand Links between Learning and

Storytelling

•Story finding

•Story telling

•Story expanding

•Story processing

•Story reconstructing

•Noticing

•Making sense

•Making meaning

•Working with meaning

•Transformative learning

Learning through

Storytelling

(McDrury & Alterio, 2003)

Map of Learning

(Moon, 1999)

McDrury, J., Alterio, M. (2003) Learning through Storytelling in Higher Education. London: Kogan-Page, p.47

Reflective Process and Storytelling

• First stage: inner discomfort orsurprise – “something” makes theexperience memorable

• Second stage: events examined indetail – stories are shared, dialogue isformed

• Third stage: relates to outcomes –decision to change or gain knowledgethrough reflection

McDrury, J., Alterio, M. (2003) Learning through Storytelling in Higher Education. London: Kogan-Page, p.110-1

Storytelling = Narrative InquiryMattingly in Schön (1991)

• Aristotle: narrative – natural framework

for representing world of action

• Everyday sense-making role of

storytelling

• Stories reveal the way ideas look in

action

• Narrative provides explanation

• Motivation for telling stories: to wrest

meaning from experiences

Story = Unpretentious NarrativeClandinin & Connelly in Schön (1991)

• A fundamental method of

personal growth

• Reflection: preparation for the

future

• Deliberation: past considerations

Storytelling as Reflection(Schön, 1988)

“…for storytelling is

the mode of description

best suited to

transformation in new

situations of action.”

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“Stories are products

of reflection, but we do not

usually hold onto them

long enough to make them

objects of reflection in their

own right.”


“When we get into the

habit of recording our stories,

we can look at them again,

attending to the meanings we

build into them and attending,

as well, to our strategies of

narrative description.”

Constructed Meaning

"The portfolio is alaboratory wherestudents constructmeaning from theiraccumulatedexperience."(Paulson & Paulson, 1991, p.5)

Portfolio tells a Story

"A portfolio tells a story.It is the story of knowing.Knowing about things... Knowingoneself... Knowing an audience...Portfolios are students' ownstories of what they know, whythey believe they know it, andwhy others should be of thesame opinion.”(Paulson & Paulson, 1991, p.2)

Portfolios tell a Story

“A portfolio is opinionbacked by fact... Studentsprove what they know withsamples of their work.”(Paulson & Paulson, 1991, p.2)

Linking Two Dynamic

Processes to Promote

Deep Learning

Portfolio Development

Process

Digital Storytelling

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Portfolio Development Process Portfolio Processes

Traditional

•Collecting

•Selecting

•Reflecting

•Directing

• Celebrating

+ Technology

•Archiving

• Linking/Thinking

•Storytelling

•Collaborating

•Publishing

Some concerns…

• Assessment for Learning

• Portfolios for Learning

• What about Motivation?

Components of Portfolio

Development

•Content

•Purpose

•Process


Development

•Content:evidence

(artifacts +reflections)


Development

•Purpose:the reason for developing theportfolio – includes audience

–Learning & professional

development - Process

–Assessment (of and for learning)

–Showcase(Employment/Marketing)

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Development

•Process:–tools used

–sequence of activities

–rules

–evaluation criteria (rubrics)

– collaboration/conversation

Motivation

Learner Ownership and Control of Electronic Portfolio Development

Contents Contents Contents

Purpose Purpose

Process

Learner Control vs. Organizational ControlAssumption:

Greater Learner Control leads to more Intrinsic Motivation

LEARNER CONTROLORGANIZATION CONTROL

Motivation

Intrinsic

Extrinsic

DEGREE

OF

CHOICE

Linked to…OnlineOnlinePortfoliosPortfolios

DigitalDigitalStorytellingStorytelling

BlogsBlogs &&WikisWikis

GamesGames

Digital Tools for

Reflection

Digital

Storytelling

Digital Storytelling Process

• Learners create a 2-4 minute

digital video clip– First person narrative

[begins with a written script ~ 400 words]

– Told in their own voice [record script]

– Illustrated (mostly) by still images

– Music track to add emotional tone

Anchorage8th grade

A Graduate Student’s Letter

to a Former Teacher

• Maybe you are a graduatestudent reflecting on what isdrawing you into teaching(while displaying your photoportfolio)

• Play ”Coming Full Circle”

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Digital Storytelling

is BOTH…

HIGH TECH

and

HIGH TOUCH

Center for Digital Storytelling

http://www.storycenter.org

Why include Digital

Storytelling in ePortfolios?

Learner Motivation

and Affect

Brain Research on

Emotion in Learning

Constructivist Approach to Project-Based "Assessment-as-Learning"

Deep Learning

• involves reflection,

• is developmental,

• is integrative,

• is self-directive, and

• is lifelong

Cambridge (2004)

Voice = Authenticity• multimedia expands the "voice"

in an electronic portfolio(both literally and rhetorically)

• personality of the author isevident

• gives the reflections auniqueness

• gives the feeling that the writer istalking directly to thereader/viewer

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More Digital Stories

• Victoria: K, 1, 2

• Naya: 7th

Digital Paper or

Digital Story?

Digital paper = text and images only

Digital story = tell your story in your

own voice.

Multimedia = audio and video

What’s Your Story?

Richness not possible in print

Audiences worldwide but mostlikely small and intimate.

Digital Story as

Legacy

Not just for professionaldevelopment

Or skills-based portfolios

Digital Storytelling Becomes a

Lifelong Skill

• Digital Family Stories

from birth to end-of-life


help people reflect on

life transitions


preserve multimedia

memories as a legacy

for future generations

Play “Legacy” Recommendations!

Unsolicited e-mail message

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From a Teacher Educator in Florida

• Each of my students this semesterproduced two digital stories, onefocusing on their philosophy ofteaching, and the other dealing withtheir field experience. We usedPhotoStory 3 because it was a freeMicrosoft Download. I was mostimpressed with their efforts and theyhave told me it was a mostmeaningful activity.

Helping Students to Reflect

• Provide models and examples

• Begin with forms or prompts

• Move to journals/blogs

• Be careful that reflection in

portfolios doesn’t become an

exercise in filling in the blanks

on a web-based form.

Helping Students Tell Their

Stories

• COLLECT more than text documents

– Pictures

– Audio

– Video

• Focus on REFLECTION over time

• Help students make CONNECTIONS

• Support multimedia presentation formats

A high school student inquiry

“I am a student in high school. Why is it

manditory for me to make a proficient on my

portfolio for me to graduate? I have all of my

credits to graduate, but if I make lower than

proficient I don't get to graduate.”

How would you answer this student?

Read my complete answer in my blog:

http://electronicportfolios.org/blog/

My final advice to that student:

Remember, you are telling us a story,

and not just any story. Your portfolio is

meant to be your story of your life over

the last four years as well as the story of

where your life might be going during

the next four years: tell it with pride!

(adapted from the Mead School District’s DRAFT Guidelines for Culminating Project)

My Website and my CD

A brief look at the tools

More in-depth tutorials and

examples

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Kean University

Digital Stories Conference

• June 23-24, 2005

• Union, New Jersey (closest

to Newark airport)

• May 15 registration deadline


[email protected]://electronicportfolios.org/reflect/

A research project to

assess the impact of

electronic portfolios

on student learning,

motivation and

engagement in

secondary schools

My Final Wish…

May all yourelectronic portfolios

become dynamiccelebrations and stories

of deep learningacross the lifespan.

Dr. Helen Barrett

• Research Project Director,


• [email protected]

• http://electronicportfolios.org/

Documents

Themes - electronicportfolios.comelectronicportfolios.com/portfolios/IRAbreakoutReflection.pdf · Some concerns… •Assessment for Learning ... Constructivist Approach to Project-Based